Rejecting the Windows Vista Starter EULA

After I had unpacked the Acer Aspire 4320 notebook
I got ready for turning the computer on for the very first time, and rejecting the Windows Vista
Starter EULA, also known as the Microsoft c.q. Windows tax. Since I bought this notebook
for experimenting with Ubuntu and open source software, I had no need for Vista. Moreover,
this notebook has only 80 G, of which a part is already used to keep a copy of Vista on
a so called rescue partition. In my not so humble opinion, if one pays for an operating
system, at least a DVD should be included with the computer.

Last Monday I had skimmed through two success stories of people getting a refund after
they had rejected the EULA, not knowing that the next day I would buy a notebook, and make
it actual. Tuesday night I emailed Acer that I had bought an Aspire in Xalapa, Veracruz,
and wanted a refund for Vista Starter. Wednesday, at the end of the
day I used the support form at the Acer Latin America on-line support site to contact
Acer with the same message.
And last Friday I got a reply by Juan Rios to the latter from which I quote:

To complete your request you will need to go to the National Service
Center located at:

Here your hard drive must be erased and the Windows License removed from
the bottom of your laptop. The National Service Center will then send the
Windows Certificate of Authenticity (COA) to be processed and a refund
check sent back to you.

Since the above address is located in Mexico city, this sounds to me like
a complicate way of giving me the finger. Especially since it was
followed by:

I must clarify that the version of windows
installed on your laptop is an OEM license and that the refund will be
from $5.00 to $15.00 U.S. Dollars.

Fifteen USD is not even sufficient to buy a one-way bus ticket to travel
from where I live, Xalapa, Veracruz, to Mexico City.

Anyway, I emailed Acer back to explain to them that I was going to reject
the EULA, and install Ubuntu, effectively overwriting the hard disk drive, and
that I would take plenty of photos of the process as proof.
Hopefully I know more next week on the refund issue.

This all might sound like a lot of trouble to go through, but in Mexico city three
people can have dinner for 15 USD. Talking about trouble... how does one reject
a license if there is no reject option? But now I am getting ahead of the story.

Vista Rejection Time (or not)

After having connected the Acer Aspire to the adapter, I turned the notebook
on, after having consulted the "Just for starters" guide, step 5, because I couldn't
find the On button with just a quick glimpse (It's close to the word Acer underneath
the display).

I saw shortly the word Acer on the laptop, and then a progress bar with Microsoft
Corporation written underneath it. Then the mouse arrow appeared, which changed into
a mouse arrow with an animated ring underneath it. Next, after a bit more waiting
the first Windows Vista Starter window showed up, in which I could select my location,
time and money formats, and keyboard. Since I was going to reject the license, I decided
not to change anything, and pressed "Siguiente" (Next).

Installing Windows Vista Starter: location related options.

And there is was, what I had been waiting for: the EULA (End User License Agreement) for
Windows Vista Starter in the top half of the dialog window. The bottom part contained
an EULA for software Acer bundles with the Aspire notebook. But where was the reject option for
each EULA?

Installing Windows Vista Starter: Microsoft and Acer EULAs.

I tried scrolling both EULAs, maybe I could only reject them if I had read each in its entirety.
But no such luck, no reject button would appear. Then I tried to read the Microsoft EULA, hoping
to find an answer, because how can one reject an EULA without a reject option? After some time
I asked Esme for help, because my Spanish is not that good.

To activate the BIOS utility, press F2 during POST.

While Esme was trying to make sense of the Vista Starter EULA, I was browsing through the Acer
Aspire User's Guide to find how to get into the BIOS utility. I had already decided that if
we both couldn't find a way to make a reject button appear it was not going to happen. And in
that case I would boot from the Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) desktop CD I just had burned, use the entire hard disk drive for installation,
and be gone with Windows Vista Starter. A few days ago I had skimmed through the User's Guide
and was sure it mentioned how to get into the BIOS utility somewhere. And there it was, on page 42:
"To activate the BIOS utility, press <F2> during POST".

I also tried to find the EULA text online, for easier reading. But when I entered the file name,
VISTA_RM.1_STARTER_OEM_es-ES, into Google I got no results at all.

What to do if you don't accept the Windows Vista Starter EULA.

In the mean time Esme had found instructions of what to do when one doesn't want to accept the Microsoft
Windows Vista Starter end user license agreement: